From Santa to Klos

The festive season is upon us and, with spirits high and the snow falling at around the UEFA headquarters in Nyon, we thought we would add a touch of tinsel to uefa.com with a Christmas XI taking you from Santa to Klos in eleven festive steps.

Roque SANTA [Claus] Cruz (FC Bayern München)…had a “clause” in his contract making him an automatic choice for the uefa.com XI. Arguably as popular in his native Paraguay as his namesake is to young children but may be intrigued to learn that his name is worth exactly twice as much as strike partner …

Jason Euell [tide] (Charlton Athletic FC) … in that Christmas Day classic game called scrabble. Whether these two would forge a better partnership in the uefa.com XI than caped crusaders batman and….

Arjen Robben [Redbreast] (PSV Eindhoven)…the rising goalscoring star of Dutch football is still under debate although the boy wonder’s performances in the UEFA Champions League for PSV make him a dead cert for the Netherlands squad at UEFA EURO 2004™ where he will come up against…

[Christmas] Karel Poborský (AC Sparta Praha)…in Group D - a section many people have dubbed the group of death. The Czech winger has really been on song this year but will be delighted to learn he could be upstaged in the worst hairstyle stakes by…

Christian Wilhelmsson (RSC Anderlecht)…who is probably blissfully unaware his name is more versitile than Manchester United FC's Phil Neville in the festive stakes. Not only can you build the word snowman out of his name you can also make the words star and Christmas. This, however, does not detract from the fact that his hairstyle makes him look like the kind of…

Ángel López (RC Celta de Vigo)…which many people put on top of their Christmas trees. Those who don’t have talented full-backs or angels on top of their tree tend to opt for the more traditional star not unlike the one seen in the East which lured the three wise men Gaspar, Baltasar and Melchior (or should that be Jesper Grønkjær, Nikola Malbaša and...

Mario Melchiot (Chelsea FC)… to the stable in Bethlehem. Melchiot, who ironically plays his football down the Kings Road at Chelsea, helped his side advance to the last 16 of the Champions League from right-back but, unlike Melchiot, has probably never given any gold, frankincense or myrrh to anyone called…

Jesus Perrara Lopéz (RCD Real Mallorca)…whose more famous namesake was born on 25 December and has the honour of sharing a birthday with Newcastle United FC full-back…

Robbie Elliott (Newcastle United FC)…whose side have enjoyed an impressive run in the UEFA Cup but probably gets sick of his family singing about…

Ritchie Partridge (Liverpool FC)…in pear trees instead of belting out happy birthday on Christmas Day which - amazingly - is exactly one day before the anniversary of the €1m transfer to Rangers of….

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